Books By David Barrie

David Barrie, 2015

Sextant is part memoir, part history, part adventure story, part popular science. It recalls the life-changing experience of sailing across the Atlantic back in 1973 - when I was 19 years old. In those days taking sights of the sun and stars with a sextant was the only reliable way to fix your position on the open ocean in a small boat. GPS was still a long way in the future. Sextant celebrates the vital role of celestial navigation in the exploration and mapping of the world’s oceans. It also includes reflections on how the electronic revolution has brought the ‘Golden Age of Celestial Navigation’ to an end - and what that revolutionary change may mean for us. Sextant was short-listed for the Mountbatten Maritime Award.

David Barrie, 2019

Incredible Journeys explores the astonishing ways in which animals - as diverse as ants, beetles, moths, butterflies, lobsters, birds, sea turtles, bats and fish - find their way around. It also discusses the brain circuitry that enables animals - including us humans - to navigate and raises important questions about our changing relationship with the world around us. While some indigenous peoples can still navigate without so much as a map or compass, most of us city-dwellers can barely find our way without the help of our GPS-enabled cell phones. By abandoning traditional navigational methods, we’re not just losing touch with the natural world. We’re jeopardising our physical and mental health - and undermining our spiritual well-being too. Incredible Journeys was chosen by The Sunday Times as Nature Book of the Year.